The Cullens Read Breaking Dawn
by LilyLunaPotter99
Summary: Before Bella and the Cullen's help and give birth to Renesmee Cullen, while Bella is still pregnant. Edward finds a mysterious book at their front door. What can this tell them of Bella's future? Starts at 'BOOK THREE: bella' 'Twilight and all characters go to Stephanie Meyers'
1. Chapter 1

***All Belongs to Stephanie Meyers; I do not own Twilight***

**Prologue**

Hearing the door knock, Edward jumped up in surprise. He would have felt the vibrations of the floor or smelt the person. Frowning, he walked up to the doorway and very quickly swung the door open. Expecting someone standing there; there seemed to be no one. Edward looked down to his feet to find a journal sized book, it was black and hard covered. Sniffing the doorway suspiciously (and yet not finding any source of lingering smells) he grabbed the book and shut the door.

"Alice?" He asked in a mild tone. No longer then a few seconds later, had his pixie accented sister stepped into view. "What?" She questioned, her voice annoyed like he had interrupted something.

"I found this." And he plopped the thing into her pale hands.

Alice frowned un-concerned. But as she flipped through the pages, her eyes grew wide in shock. Edward tried to read her mind, but all he got was difficult math equations.

"What is it Alice? Let me see it back." She sighed annoyed and flipped open to the front page and stretched her arm to reveal it to him. It read: **_BOOK THREE: bella_**

"So?" Edward asked. "There are plenty of people out there who have the name Bella."

Alice shook her head. "You are un-believable. This is important; get everyone to the sitting room. I'll be waiting. We need to read this book." She took off swiftly, holding the black book.

"Rosalie," He said walking up the stairs. "Emmett, Jasper, Carlisle, Esme?"

Four of the five came out of the rooms while Rosalie came out of the bathroom.

"What Edward?" Some muttered, obviously busy.

"I found a book at the front door; Alice thinks its something important and wants to meet all of us in the sitting room to read it." Edward replied.

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Let me just finish giving Bella a bath and then we will both meet you down there." Without a reply, she shut the door with a snap.

After about ten minutes, Rosalie came down holding Bella who was shaking. Her skin was bland, she had dark circles under her eyes, she was bony and thin, and worst of all; her stomach was bulging to a large extent, bruises slowly growing on the skin.

"Rosalie said there was something important for us to do, what's going on?" Bella asked in a hoarse voice. Rosalie smiled kindly, (which was a rare trait) "Just reading a book Bella, come on." She led her softly down on one of the couches.

Edward clenched his fists fighting back the urge to spring on her and to remove that vile thing that was destroying his precious Bella. But he didn't; Bella was protected by Rosalie, and Rosalie was protected by Emmett. Plus, it would break Bella's heart.

"Everyone ready?" Alice piped up. Everyone nodded.

She opened the book and began to read.

**_No longer just a nightmare, the line of black advanced on us through the icy mist stirred up by their feet. We're going to die, I thought in panic. _**

"What's going on?" Carlisle asked clearly confused.

"It's the preface." Alice answered quickly.

**_I was desperate for the precious one I guarded, but even to think of that was a lapse in attention I could not afford. They ghosted closer, their dark robes billowing slightly with the movement. I saw their hands curl into bone-colored claws. They drifted apart, angling to come at us from all sides. We were out numbered. It was over. And then, like a burst of light from a flash, the whole scene was different. Yet nothing changed—the Volturi-_**

"What?" Everyone asked clearly shocked.

"Why are the Volturi in this book?" Emmett questioned.

Alice sighed annoyed. "It's a book about Bella, now let me finish."

**_-still stalked toward us, poised to kill. All that really changed was how the picture looked to me. Suddenly, I was hungry for it. I _****wanted ****_them to charge. The panic changed to blood lust as I crouched forward, a smile on my face, and a growl ripped through my bared teeth._**

"What is this supposed to mean?" Bella asked shocked. "Am I a vampire or something?"

Everyone clearly just as shocked, Alice flipped to the next page to continue to read.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

"**_Burning._**" Alice voice echoed throughout the large house.

Carlisle and Edward both exchanged a nervous glance.

"**_The pain was bewildering._**"

This had everyone glancing at Bella fearfully.

"**_Exactly that—I was bewildered. I couldn't understand, couldn't make sense of what was happening. My body tried to reject the pain, and I was sucked again and again into a blackness that cut out whole seconds or maybe even minutes of the agony, making it that much harder to keep up with reality._**"

"Okay, I'm really worried. What's happening?" Esme said shocked.

Alice looked sadly at Esme; she was one of the kindest people she had ever met, and knew that it was hard for her to think about pain; much less hear it.

**_ I tried to separate them. Non-reality was black, and it didn't hurt so much. Reality was red, and it felt like I was being sawed in half, hit by a bus, punched by a prize fighter, trampled by bulls, and submerged in acid, all at the same time._**

Rosalie's eyes widened. _Please don't tell me it's what I think it is… _She thought. Edward looked at her sadly.

**_Reality was feeling my body twist and flip when I couldn't possibly move because of the pain. Reality was knowing there was something so much more important than all this torture, and not being able to remember what it was. Reality had come on so fast. One moment, everything was as it should have been. Surrounded by people I loved. Smiles. Somehow, unlikely as it was, it seemed like I was about to get everything I'd been fighting for. And then one tiny, inconsequential thing had gone wrong. I'd watched as my cup tilted, dark blood spilling out and staining the perfect white,-_**

"Blood?" Bella asked this time. "Why would I be holding a cup of blood?"

Edward stared at Bella, regret still in his eyes. "Bella – honey, how do you know this is about you?"

Bella pierced her eyes. "Alice said so, and Alice _always_ knows everything."

He sighed, not wanting to fight with her, he let it be.

**_- and I'd lurched toward the accident reflexively. I'd seen the other, faster hands, but my body had continued to reach, to stretch. . . ._**

**_Inside me, something had yanked the opposite direction._**

**_Ripping. Breaking. Agony._**

Everybody winced and eyes widened.

**_The darkness had taken over, and then washed away to a wave of torture. I couldn't breathe—I had drowned once before, and this was different; it was too hot in my throat._**

**_Pieces of me shattering, snapping, slicing apart. . . ._**

This time, everyone shuddered.

**_More blackness._**

**_Voices, this time, shouting, as the pain came back._**

**_"The placenta must have detached!"_**

"No!" Edward and Rosalie yelled. Edward still not wanting to admit it was about his wife.

**_Something sharper than knives ripped through me—the words, making sense in spite of the other tortures. Detached placenta—I knew what that meant. It meant that my baby was dying inside me._**

**_"Get him out!" I screamed to Edward._**

Edward sunk back into his seat, clearly in pain of hearing the exact words of proof.

**_ Why hadn't he done it yet? "He can't breathe! Do it now!"_**

Bella gasped, scared for her son.

**_"The morphine—"_**

**_He wanted to wait, to give me painkillers, while our baby was dying?!_**

Jasper looked annoyed at his brother's actions.

**_"No! Now—," I choked, unable to finish._**

**_Black spots covered the light in the room as a cold point of new pain stabbed icily into my stomach. It felt wrong—I struggled automatically to protect my womb, my baby, my little Edward Jacob,-_**

Everyone raised their eyebrows at the name.

**_ -but I was weak. My lungs ached, oxygen burned away._**

**_The pain faded away again, though I clung to it now. My baby, my baby, dying. . ._**

"No," Bella moaned quietly. "Save my son!"

**_How long had passed? Seconds or minutes? The pain was gone. Numb. I couldn't feel. I still couldn't see, either, but I could hear. There was air in my lungs again, scraping in rough bubbles up and down my throat._**

**_"You stay with me now, Bella! Do you hear me? Stay! You're not leaving me. Keep your heart beating!"_**

"I can't stand this…" Esme said, trying to cover her ears.

**_Jacob? Jacob, still here, still trying to save me._**

Bella gasped, everyone jumped up as if something happened to her. She waved them off. "What is Jacob doing there?" Everyone exchanged confused glances.

**_Of course, I wanted to tell him. Of course I would keep my heart beating. Hadn't I promised them both?_**

Edward felt his cold, stone body tense.

**_I tried to feel my heart, to find it, but I was so lost inside my own body. I couldn't feel the things I should, and nothing felt in the right place. I blinked and I found my eyes. I could see the light. Not what I was looking for, but better than nothing._**

**_As my eyes struggled to adjust, Edward whispered, "Renesmee."_**

"Renes- what?" Some people questioned.

**_Renesmee?_**

Jasper could feel the sorrow and confusion mixing throughout the room.

**_Not the pale and perfect son of my imagination? I felt a moment of shock. And then a flood of warmth._**

**_Renesmee._**

Bella's eyes widened in shock. "He's a girl? But I was sure the baby was a…" Rosalie smiled sympathetically.

**_I willed my lips to move, willed the bubbles of air to turn into whispers on my tongue. I forced my numb hands to reach._**

**_"Let me… Give her to me."_**

Bella's eyes filled with tears. Esme looked as if she could; her eyes would have been doing the same.

**_The light danced, shattering off Edward's crystal hands. The sparkles were tinged with red, with the blood that covered his skin. And more red in his hands._**

**_Something small and struggling, dripping with blood. _**

"Where am I?" Carlisle asked shocked. But as he slowly recovered he stared at Edward.

_I'm proud of you; there's so much blood… _Carlisle thought towards him.

**_He touched the warm body to my weak arms, almost like I was holding her. Her wet skin was hot—as hot as Jacob's._**

Edward still trying to get over the shock of Bella in so much pain, he was even more surprised with the idea of the monster in her stomach, wasn't cold blooded.

**_My eyes focused; suddenly everything was absolutely clear._**

**_Renesmee did not cry, but she breathed in quick, startled pants. Her eyes were open, her expression so shocked it was almost funny. The little, perfectly round head was covered in a thick layer of matted, bloody curls. Her irises were a familiar—but astonishing—chocolate brown. _**

Edward wasn't breathing. Esme was fighting the smile that wanted to come onto her face. Everyone was obviously relieved.

**_Under the blood, her skin looked pale, a creamy ivory. All besides her cheeks, which flamed with color._**

Rosalie smiled ecstatically. Bella looked more then happy, but was still scared for her dying body.

**_Her tiny face was so absolutely perfect that it stunned me. She was even more beautiful than her father._**

A small smile inflicted onto Edwards face, breaking his trance. _Maybe,_ he thought. _This isn't the monster I presumed it to be… _

**_ Unbelievable. Impossible._**

"Trust me Bella," Alice said softly. "I'm positive to find it possible for your daughter to be prettier then her father."

Some of the tension in the room decreased. Jasper finding a chance to send a feeling of calm throughout the room.

**_"Renesmee," I whispered. "So… beautiful."_**

Bella smiled happily.

**_The impossible face suddenly smiled—a wide, deliberate smile. Behind the shell pink lips was a full complement of snowy milk teeth._**

"Wow," Carlisle whispered. "Although some children are born with a full set of teeth; this was in just a matter of _weeks_."

**_She leaned her head down, against my chest, burrowing against the warmth. Her skin was warm and silky, but it didn't give the way mine did._**

**_Then there was pain again—just one warm slash of it. I gasped._**

"Of course," Emmett murmured. "There's always the pain."

**_And she was gone. My angel-faced baby was nowhere. I couldn't see or feel her._**

**_No! I wanted to shout. Give her back to me!_**

Bella glared at the room.

**_But the weakness was too much. My arms felt like empty rubber hoses for a moment, and then they felt like nothing at all. I couldn't feel them. I couldn't feel me._**

**_The blackness rushed over my eyes more solidly than before. Like a thick blindfold, firm and fast. Covering not just my eyes but also my self with a crushing weight. It was exhausting to push against it. I knew it would be so much easier to give in. To let the blackness push me down, down, down to a place where there was no pain and no weariness and no worry and no fear._**

Bella felt her throat thicken and it seemed harder to swallow.

**_If it had only been for myself, I wouldn't have been able to struggle very long. I_**

**_was only human, with no more than human strength. I'd been trying to keep up_**

**_with the supernatural for too long, like Jacob had said._**

Edwards stare at the book hardened, as if he wanted to make it explode or something.

**_But this wasn't just about me._**

_She's so selfless… _Rosalie thought.

**_If I did the easy thing now, let the black nothingness erase me, I would hurt them._**

**_Edward. Edward. My life and his were twisted into a single strand. Cut one, and you cut both. If he were gone, I would not be able to live through that. If I were gone, he wouldn't live through it, either._**

"Yes, please don't." Edward pleaded desperately.

**_ And a world without Edward seemed completely pointless. Edward had to exist._**

**_Jacob—who'd said goodbye to me over and over but kept coming back when I needed him. Jacob, who I'd wounded so many times it was criminal._**

Bella smiled and it took all of Edwards self control not to growl.

**_Would I hurt him again, the worst way yet? He'd stayed for me, despite everything. Now all he asked was that I stay for him._**

**_But it was so dark here that I couldn't see either of their faces. Nothing seemed real. That made it hard not to give up._**

**_I kept pushing against the black, though, almost a reflex. I wasn't trying to lift it. I was just resisting. Not allowing it to crush me completely. I wasn't Atlas, and the black felt as heavy as a planet; I couldn't shoulder it. All I could do was not be entirely obliterated._**

Bella's breathing became disoriented.

**_It was sort of the pattern to my life—I'd never been strong enough to deal with the things outside my control, to attack the enemies or outrun them. To avoid the pain. Always human and weak, the only thing I'd ever been able to do was keep going. Endure. Survive._**

This time, Bella nodded proudly.

**_It had been enough up to this point. It would have to be enough today. I would endure this until help came._**

**_I knew Edward would be doing everything he could. He would not give up._**

"I never would," he stated, slipping his hand into hers.

She smiled apologetically. "I know."

**_Neither would I._**

**_I held the blackness of nonexistence at bay by inches._**

**_It wasn't enough, though—that determination. As the time ground on and on and the darkness gained by tiny eighths and sixteenths of my inches, I needed something more to draw strength from._**

**_I couldn't pull even Edward's face into view. Not Jacob's, not Alice's or Rosalie's or Charlie's or Renée's or Carlisle's or Esme's…_**

Many of the vampires in the room smiled happily and astounded that she has thought of them like she had thought of her family. They were her family. Rosalie looked please.

**_ Nothing. It terrified me, and I wondered if it was too late._**

**_I felt myself slipping—there was nothing to hold on to._**

**_No! I had to survive this. Edward was depending on me. Jacob. Charlie Alice_**

**_Rosalie Carlisle Renée Esme…_**

_Do it! _Many people in the room thought.

**_Renesmee._**

**_And then, though I still couldn't see anything, suddenly I could feel something._**

**_Like phantom limbs, I imagined I could feel my arms again. And in them, something small and hard and very, very warm. My baby. My little nudger._**

**_I had done it. Against the odds, I had been strong enough to survive Renesmee, to hold on to her until she was strong enough to live without me._**

Although it may be true, even if Bella had lived, many people still glared at her and the book.

**_That spot of heat in my phantom arms felt so real. I clutched it closer. It was exactly where my heart should be. Holding tight the warm memory of my daughter, I knew that I would be able to fight the darkness as long as I needed to._**

**_The warmth beside my heart got more and more real, warmer and warmer._**

**_Hotter. The heat was so real it was hard to believe that I was imagining it._**

**_Hotter._**

**_Uncomfortable now. Too hot. Much, much too hot._**

Edwards's eyes widened. No…

**_Like grabbing the wrong end of a curling iron—my automatic response was to drop the scorching thing in my arms. But there was nothing in my arms. My arms were not curled to my chest. My arms were dead things lying somewhere at my_**

**_side. The heat was inside me._**

"Your turning into one of us." Carlisle said clearly astounded she had survived giving birth and almost dying to a vampire baby.

**_The burning grew—rose and peaked and rose again until it surpassed anything I'd ever felt._**

Many of the people in the room grimaced, having experienced this very feeling.

**_I felt the pulse behind the fire raging now in my chest and realized that I'd found my heart again, just in time to wish I never had. To wish that I'd embraced the blackness while I'd still had the chance. I wanted to raise my arms and claw my chest open and rip the heart from it—anything to get rid of this torture. But I couldn't feel my arms, couldn't move one vanished finger._**

**_James, snapping my leg under his foot. _**

Edward sunk back into the couch once more, Bella flinched.

**_That was nothing. That was a soft place to rest on a feather bed. I'd take that now, a hundred times. A hundred snaps. I'd take it and be grateful._**

**_The baby, kicking my ribs apart, breaking her way through me piece by piece._**

_What! _Edward heard everyone in the room shout. This hadn't happened yet. Edward had to remind himself and squeezed Bella's hand to confirm she was still with him.

**_That was nothing. That was floating in a pool of cool water. I'd take it a thousand times. Take it and be grateful._**

**_The fire blazed hotter and I wanted to scream. To beg for someone to kill me now, before I lived one more second in this pain. But I couldn't move my lips. The weight was still there, pressing on me._**

**_I realized it wasn't the darkness holding me down; it was my body. So heavy._**

**_Burying me in the flames that were chewing their way out from my heart now, spreading with impossible pain through my shoulders and stomach, scalding their way up my throat, licking at my face._**

**_Why couldn't I move? Why couldn't I scream? This wasn't part of the stories._**

**_My mind was unbearably clear—sharpened by the fierce pain—and I saw the answer almost as soon as I could form the questions._**

**_The morphine._**

As Carlisle's statement was clearly shown, everyone looked sympathetically towards Bella. Instead, her eyes widened finally realizing how painful it would be to become a vampire.

**_It seemed like a million deaths ago that we'd discussed it—Edward, Carlisle, and_**

**_I. Edward and Carlisle had hoped that enough painkillers would help fight the pain of the venom. Carlisle had tried with Emmett, but the venom had burned_**

**_ahead of the medicine, sealing his veins. _**

"You're able to think on memories while in that type of pain?" Carlisle asked astounded. "I- wow."

**_There hadn't been time for it to spread._**

**_I'd kept my face smooth and nodded and thanked my rarely lucky stars that Edward could not read my mind._**

Some people chuckled half-heartedly.

**_Because I'd had morphine and venom together in my system before, and I knew the truth. I knew the numbness of the medicine was completely irrelevant while the venom seared through my veins._**

"That would be horrible to get a taste of the pain before actually experiencing the real account. It's like becoming a vampire twice in most ways." Alice said, clearly had not remembered her experience. This came as a bit of a shock to her.

Bella nodded sadly.

**_ But there'd been no way I was going to mention that fact. Nothing that would make him more unwilling to change me._**

**_I hadn't guessed that the morphine would have this effect—that it would pin me down and gag me. Hold me paralyzed while I burned. I knew all the stories. I knew that Carlisle had kept quiet enough to avoid discovery while he burned. I knew that, according to Rosalie, it did no good to scream. And I'd hoped that maybe I could be like Carlisle. That I would believe Rosalie's words and keep my mouth shut. Because I knew that every scream that escaped my lips would torment Edward._**

Edward looked ready to commit suicide. Again.

**_Now it seemed like a hideous joke that I was getting my wish fulfilled._**

"Exactly why I refused in most ways…" Edward said. Bella just frowned at him.

**_If I couldn't scream, how could I tell them to kill me?_**

**_All I wanted was to die. To never have been born. The whole of my existence did not outweigh this pain. Wasn't worth living through it for one more heartbeat._**

**_Let me die, let me die, let me die._**

**_And, for a never-ending space, that was all there was. Just the fiery torture, and my soundless shrieks, pleading for death to come. Nothing else, not even time. So that made it infinite, with no beginning and no end. One infinite moment of pain._**

**_The only change came when suddenly, impossibly, my pain was doubled. The lower half of my body, deadened since before the morphine, was suddenly on fire, too. Some broken connection had been healed—knitted together by the scorching fingers of the flame._**

**_The endless burn raged on._**

Carlisle once again frowned.

**_It could have been seconds or days, weeks or years, but, eventually, time came to mean something again. Three things happened together, grew from each other so that I didn't know which came first: time restarted, the morphine's weight faded, and I got stronger._**

Esme smiled approvingly. "It's working well."

**_I could feel the control of my body come back to me in increments, and those increments were my first markers of the time passing. I knew it when I was able to twitch my toes and twist my fingers into fists. I knew it, but I did not act on it._**

**_Though the fire did not decrease one tiny degree—in fact, I began to develop a new capacity for experiencing it, a new sensitivity to appreciate, separately, each blistering tongue of flame that licked through my veins—I discovered that I could think around it._**

Carlisle had not remembered that part of his experience; he pitied himself to much to think otherwise.

**_I could remember why I shouldn't scream. I could remember the reason why I'd committed to enduring this unendurable agony. I could remember that, though it felt impossible now, there was something that might be worth the torture. This happened just in time for me to hold on when the weights left my body. To anyone watching me, there would be no change. But for me, as I struggled to keep the screams and thrashing locked up inside my body, where they couldn't hurt anyone else, it felt like I'd gone from being tied to the stake as I burned, to gripping that stake to hold myself in the fire._**

"You're going to be fine Bella," Jasper said. He felt her fear burn through him and helped her calm. She smiled thankfully towards him. Her bony fingers pulling the blanket off the side of the couch and covered herself.

**_I had just enough strength to lie there unmoving while I was charred alive._**

**_My hearing got clearer and clearer, and I could count the frantic, pounding beats of my heart to mark the time._**

Edward sighed relieved that her pain was going to be over soon.

**_I could count the shallow breaths that gasped through my teeth._**

**_I could count the low, even breaths that came from somewhere close beside me._**

**_These moved slowest, so I concentrated on them. They meant the most time passing. More even than a clock's pendulum, those breaths pulled me through the burning seconds toward the end._**

**_I continued to get stronger, my thoughts clearer. When new noises came, I could listen._**

**_There were light footsteps, the whisper of air stirred by an opening door. The_**

**_footsteps got closer, and I felt pressure against the inside of my wrist. I couldn't feel the coolness of the fingers. The fire blistered away every memory of cool._**

"It's almost over." Carlisle smiled happily.

**_"Still no change?"_**

**_"None."_**

**_The lightest pressure, breath against my scorched skin._**

Bella rubbed her skin self consciously.

**_"There's no scent of the morphine left."_**

**_"I know."_**

**_"Bella? Can you hear me?"_**

**_I knew, beyond all doubt, that if I unlocked my teeth I would lose it—I would shriek and screech and writhe and thrash. If I opened my eyes, if I so much as twitched a finger—any change at all would be the end of my control._**

**_"Bella? Bella, love? Can you open your eyes? Can you squeeze my hand?" Pressure on my fingers. It was harder not to answer this voice, but I stayed paralyzed._**

Many people in the room nodded approvingly.

**_ I knew that the pain in his voice now was nothing compared to what it could be. Right now he only feared that I was suffering._**

**_"Maybe… Carlisle, maybe I was too late." His voice was muffled; it broke on the word late._**

Carlisle stared at his son intently and proud.

**_My resolve wavered for a second._**

**_"Listen to her heart, Edward. It's stronger than even Emmett's was. I've never heard anything so vital. She'll be perfect."_**

Alice smiled excitedly.

**_Yes, I was right to keep quiet. Carlisle would reassure him. He didn't need to suffer with me._**

**_"And her—her spine?"_**

**_"Her injuries weren't so much worse than Esme's. The venom will heal her as it_**

**_did Esme."_**

"Good…" Edward whispered more then relieved.

**_"But she's so still. I must have done something wrong."_**

**_"Or something right, Edward. Son, you did everything I could have and more. I'm not sure I would have had the persistence, the faith it took to save her. Stop berating yourself. Bella is going to be fine."_**

"I wonder what you did and where I was…" Carlisle asked once again.

**_A broken whisper. "She must be in agony."_**

**_"We don't know that. She had so much morphine in her system. We don't know the effect that will have on her experience."_**

Bella took pride in her husband and him trying to save her, but scowled a bit. "How many times had you bit me?" Edward shrugged absent-mindedly.

**_Faint pressure inside the crease of my elbow. Another whisper. "Bella, I love you. Bella, I'm sorry."_**

"Stop saying that." She demanded fiercely.

**_I wanted so much to answer him, but I wouldn't make his pain worse. Not while I had the strength to hold myself still._**

**_Through all this, the racking fire went right on burning me. But there was so much space in my head now. Room to ponder their conversation, room to remember what had happened, room to look ahead to the future, with still endless room left over to suffer in._**

**_Also room to worry._**

**_Where was my baby? Why wasn't she here? Why weren't they talking about her?_**

Rosalie frowned.

**_"No, I'm staying right here," Edward whispered, answering an unspoken thought._**

**_"They'll sort it out."_**

**_"An interesting situation," Carlisle responded. "And I'd thought I'd seen just about everything."_**

**_"I'll deal with it later. We'll deal with it." Something pressed softly to my blistering palm._**

**_"I'm sure, between the five of us, we can keep it from turning into bloodshed."_**

**_Edward sighed. "I don't know which side to take. I'd love to flog them both. Well, later."_**

**_"I wonder what Bella will think—whose side she'll take," Carlisle mused._**

"I wonder what's going on." Emmett mused.

"Don't we all." Alice muttered back.

**_One low, strained chuckle. "I'm sure she'll surprise me. She always does."_**

Bella was surprised at this news, since when?

**_Carlisle's footsteps faded away again, and I was frustrated that there was no further explanation. Were they talking so mysteriously just to annoy me?_**

**_I went back to counting Edward's breaths to mark the time._**

**_Ten thousand, nine hundred forty-three breaths later, a different set of footsteps whispered into the room. Lighter. More… rhythmic._**

"Me!" Alice pronounced happily.

**_Strange that I could distinguish the minute differences between footsteps that I'd never been able to hear at all before today._**

**_"How much longer?" Edward asked._**

**_"It won't be long now," Alice told him. "See how clear she's becoming? I can see her so much better." She sighed._**

_Finally! _Alice thought,

**_"Still feeling a little bitter?"_**

**_"Yes, thanks so much for bringing it up," she grumbled. "You would be mortified, too, if you realized that you were handcuffed by your own nature. I see vampires best, because I am one; I see humans okay, because I was one. But I can't see these odd half-breeds at all because they're nothing I've experienced. Bah!"_**

"Although your visions can get annoying; I'm glad you have them." Rosalie stated.

Alice looked at her annoyed. "Thanks," She replied sarcastically.

**_"Focus, Alice."_**

**_"Right. Bella's almost too easy to see now."_**

**_There was a long moment of silence, and then Edward sighed. It was a new sound, happier._**

**_"She's really going to be fine," he breathed._**

**_"Of course she is."_**

**_"You weren't so sanguine two days ago."_**

**_"I couldn't see right two days ago. But now that she's free of all the blind spots, it's a piece of cake."_**

**_"Could you concentrate for me? On the clock—give me an estimate."_**

**_Alice sighed. "So impatient. Fine. Give me a sec—"_**

**_Quiet breathing._**

**_"Thank you, Alice." His voice was brighter._**

**_How long? Couldn't they at least say it aloud for me? Was that too much to ask?_**

Bella again frowned.

**_How many more seconds would I burn? Ten thousand? Twenty? Another day—_**

**_eighty-six thousand, four hundred? More than that?_**

**_"She's going to be dazzling."_**

**_Edward growled quietly. "She always has been."_**

**_Alice snorted. "You know what I mean. Look at her."_**

Quietly in the inside, Bella was excited. She wanted to know what she would be like.

**_Edward didn't answer, but Alice's words gave me hope that maybe I didn't resemble the charcoal briquette I felt like. It seemed as if I must be just a pile of charred bones by now. Every cell in my body had been razed to ash._**

**_I heard Alice breeze out of the room. I heard the swish of the fabric she moved, rubbing against itself. I heard the quiet buzz of the light hanging from the ceiling. I heard the faint wind brushing against the outside of the house. I could hear everything._**

**_Downstairs, someone was watching a ball game. The Mariners were winning by two runs._**

**_"It's my turn," I heard Rosalie snap at someone, and there was a low snarl in response._**

**_"Hey, now," Emmett cautioned._**

**_Someone hissed._**

"The Mariners?" Emmett asked interested. Rosalie rolled her eyes.

**_I listened for more, but there was nothing but the game. Baseball was not interesting enough to distract me from the pain, so I listened to Edward's breathing again, counting the seconds._**

**_Twenty-one thousand, nine hundred seventeen and a half seconds later, the pain changed._**

**_On the good-news side of things, it started to fade from my fingertips and toes._**

**_Fading slowly, but at least it was doing something new. This had to be it. The pain was on its way out.…_**

**_And then the bad news. The fire in my throat wasn't the same as before. I wasn't only on fire, but I was now parched, too. Dry as bone. So thirsty. Burning fire, and burning thirst…_**

Jasper sighed wiped out. _Another _newborn…

**_Also bad news: The fire inside my heart got hotter._**

**_How was that possible?_**

**_My heartbeat, already too fast, picked up—the fire drove its rhythm to a new frantic pace._**

**_"Carlisle," Edward called. His voice was low but clear. I knew that Carlisle would hear it, if he were in or near the house._**

**_The fire retreated from my palms, leaving them blissfully pain-free and cool. But it retreated to my heart, which blazed hot as the sun and beat at a furious new speed._**

**_Carlisle entered the room, Alice at his side. Their footsteps were so distinct, I could even tell that Carlisle was on the right, and a foot ahead of Alice._**

**_"Listen," Edward told them._**

**_The loudest sound in the room was my frenzied heart, pounding to the rhythm of the fire._**

**_"Ah," Carlisle said. "It's almost over."_**

"I thought you said that earlier." Bella muttered to Carlisle. He just shrugged.

**_My relief at his words was overshadowed by the excruciating pain in my heart._**

**_My wrists were free, though, and my ankles. The fire was totally extinguished there._**

**_"Soon," Alice agreed eagerly. "I'll get the others. Should I have Rosalie… ?"_**

**_"Yes—keep the baby away."_**

**_What? No. No! What did he mean, keep my baby away? What was he thinking?_**

**_My fingers twitched—the irritation breaking through my perfect façade. The room went silent besides the jack-hammering of my heart as they all stopped breathing for a second in response._**

**_A hand squeezed my wayward fingers. "Bella? Bella, love?"_**

**_Could I answer him without screaming? I considered that for a moment, and then_**

**_the fire ripped hotter still through my chest, draining in from my elbows and_**

**_knees. Better not to chance it._**

**_"I'll bring them right up," Alice said, an urgent edge to her tone, and I heard the_**

**_swish of wind as she darted away._**

No one said a word, to into the book.

**_And then—oh!_**

**_My heart took off, beating like helicopter blades, the sound almost a single sustained note; it felt like it would grind through my ribs. The fire flared up in the center of my chest, sucking the last remnants of the flames from the rest of my body to fuel the most scorching blaze yet. The pain was enough to stun me, to break through my iron grip on the stake. My back arched, bowed as if the fire was dragging me upward by my heart._**

**_I allowed no other piece of my body to break rank as my torso slumped back to the table._**

**_It became a battle inside me—my sprinting heart racing against the attacking fire._**

**_Both were losing. The fire was doomed, having consumed everything that was combustible; my heart galloped toward its last beat._**

**_The fire constricted, concentrating inside that one remaining human organ with a final, unbearable surge. The surge was answered by a deep, hollow-sounding thud. My heart stuttered twice, and then thudded quietly again just once more._**

**_There was no sound. No breathing. Not even mine._**

**_For a moment, the absence of pain was all I could comprehend._**

**_And then I opened my eyes and gazed above me in wonder._**

"Wow," almost everyone breathed.

Emmett snapped his hands together. "Well, that was a long and painful chapter. Literally." A smile appeared on some of the vampires faces. "How about we get to the next chapter?"

"Here," Alice handed the book to Carlisle.

Carlisle read out, "**_New_**."


End file.
